This invention relates to a method of making a protective garment, a garment produced in accordance with the method, and a strand material used in the method and garment.
Protective garments have been well known and widely used in a number of applications and fields. By way of example, protective garments in the form of gloves which are coated after manufacture are shown in Kennedy U.S. Pat. No. 2,703,887; Tassie U.S. Pat. No. 2,838,759; and Tillotson U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,062. By way of further example a penetration resistant glove first formed of synthetic rubber which has a fabric overlay in the palm and thumb areas affixed by adhesives is shown in Seid U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,578. The technology of making such gloves may as well be applied to the manufacture of other protective type garments.
While protective garments made as described in the aforementioned prior patents have achieved some success and acceptance, such garments have limitations in protecting wearers against injury from slashing and penetrating, while at the same time resisting staining. Cut resistant gloves are used in surgical and meat processing applications as well as other applications. Particularly in the meat processing environment, blood and animal fat stains gloves and reduces their useful life.
A further consideration that has more recently arisen is to create protective garments, such as gloves, which are cut and stain resistant and impervious to fluids. For this reason, enhancement of the cut resistance of a protective garment is a constantly sought goal.
In clean room environments there is the need to provide protective clothing, particularly gloves which are conductive. Gloves which are nonconductive and stain resistant can be made of various materials. However, gloves so made do not have the property of being cut resistant. And in turn, garments, such as gloves, which are made of cut resistant fibers which are nonconductive have not had the property of being resistant to discoloration.
At present, the technology teaches forming a garment such as a glove and affixing protective material such as a fiber fabric or creating a garment from a fabric and coating it with a substance such as latex. Present technology does not teach a single strand based garment where the fabric is made from one strand having the property of cut and discoloration resistance.
Attempts to produce cut resistant fabrics from steel wire and Kevlar strands, have been unsuccessful because the strands either break in the fabric forming machines or cause breakage of the machines. As a consequence other techniques for manufacturing garment with the desired properties of cut and discoloration resistance have met with limited success.